Tube filling machine



Aug. 16, 1955 w. s. KAZMIERCZAK ETAL 2,715,489

TUBE FILLING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed NOV. l0, 1951 all' INVENTOR.

M m y MM M S.

f n zw Afro/@M75 Aug- 16, 1955 w. s. KAZMIERcZAK ETAL 2,715,489

TUBE FILLING MACHINE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. l0, 1951 INVENTORJ s KM u MM M J A A K 6 A o MMM w United States Patent O TUBE FILLING MACHINE Walter S. Kazmierczak, Detroit, and Leo P. Gajda, Dearborn, IVlich., assignors to Arthur Colton Company, Division of Snyder Tool and Engineering Company, Detroit, lt/iich., a corporation of lVIichigan Application November 10, 1951, Serial No. 255,858

Claims. (Cl. 226-74) This invention relates to a tube iilling machine.

Collapsible tubes are used in the distribution of many paste and semi-liquid products. These tubes are usually formed with a threaded neck at one end and the other end is left open for filling. Prior to the filling, a cap is threaded on the neck, and the tube is lled at the uncapped, open end. Subsequent to the filling, this open end is squeezed together and either welded or clamped to provide a closed container.

Subsequent to the filling, it is desirable to have the cap tightened on the tube in order to insure that there will be no loss of material in shipping, which might damage a whole carton of packaged tubes.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a tube holder which is used as one of a multiplicity of holders in an automatic machine to hold tubes while they are being filled. This tube holder is also to be associated with a means for tightening the caps as the filling progresses and is especially designed to hold the filled tube against rotation as the cap is being tightened.

it is a further object to provide a mechanism of this type which may be used in an automatic machine which is readily adapted to varying sized tubes so that one machine is very versatile in the loading of tubes for numerous products.

Other objects and features of the invention relating to details of construction and operation will be evident in the following description and claims.

Drawings accompany the disclosure, and the various views thereof may be briey described as:

Figure l, a general schematic View of a tube illing and cap tightening machine.

Figure 2, a detailed section through one tube holder showing the relationship of the parts.

Figures 3 and 4, horizontal sections on lines 3 3 and 4 4 of Figure 2.

Figure 5, a sectional view on line 5 5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6, a sectional view on line 6 6 of Figure 2 showing only the tube holder.

Figure 7, a sectional view on line 7-7 of Figure 2.

Referring to the drawings, in Figure l a schematic view of a tube filling machine is shown. A material hopper 1li feeds material to a vertically movable nozzle 12 which descends into a tube 14 which is held in a tube holder 16. The tube is in what will be referred to as an inverted position, that is, the end having the threaded neck (see Figure 2) is pointed downwardly and the open end is presented for the introduction of the illing tube 12.

The tube holders 16 are mounted on a conveying mechanism 18 which consists of a plurality of links operating in a grooved track 20, Figure 2. The tube holders may thus be moved step by step around in a denite path from a point where the empty, unfilled tubes are loaded into the holders, past the loading station, and then to clamping and closing stations 24 where the open ends of the tube ,I are pushed together to a diametrical junction and welded or clamped.

ice

The particular tube holder used in the present invention is shown in detail in Figure 2. lt consists of a cylindrical housing 16 having a reduced end 26 which is received in a cylindrical ring 28. The ring 28 is held in the link 18 which moves around in the continuous conveyor track 26 previously described.

The wall of the tube holder is cut away at 30 to permit entry of a cap tightening device which will be described later. On an opposite side of the tube holder the Wall is provided with an aperture 32 in which is positioned a movable plate 34. This plate 34 has lateral flanges 36 which limit the introduction of the plate into the wall of the holder.

A small coil spring 3S surrounds the tube holder in a groove in the external surface thereof and also passes around the plate 34 to urge it inwardly in its position in the wall of the holder. The holder is provided with a cylindrical recess liti at the bottom which extends upwardly and enlarges at a shoulder 42 to a larger cylindrical recess 44.

The recess 44 is also shaped in elliptical cross-section on opposite sides as shown best in Figures 3 and 6, where the two walls 46 are enlarged in a substantially elliptical fashion on an axis 90 degrees removed from the opening 32 and the plate 34.

At a station marked 5b in Figure 1 a cap tightening device is provided. Two vertically arranged rods 52 form a frame with bottom member 54 and top member S6, Figure 2, this entire assembly being fastened to the machine adjacent the run of the tube holders toward the ejection point. Slidable on the vertical rods 52 is a cap tightening device consisting or a bar 53 adjustably positioned by set screws 59 on the shafts or rods 52.

Mounted in the bar 58 is a frictional plate 60 preferably formed of rubber or soft plastic or other material which will exert a rubbing action. This plate 60 is mounted in brackets 62, Figure 5, and is backed by springs 64. The edge 66 of the friction plate 60 is positioned to extend into the cut-away opening 30 of the tube holder as the tube holder passes the station Si). In this position the edge of the plate will contact the side of a cap 70, Figure 2, on the tube as the tube passes in the holder to screw the cap tightly onto the threaded neck of the tube.

As shown in Figure 2, a medium sized tube is being ,handled which positions the tightening plate 60 about mid-way between the ends of the bars 52. In dotted lines, however, in Figure 2 other tube holders are shown of varying sizes. At the top a small tube is shown in which the tightening bar is located at a top position on the bars 52.

The bar 58 is also shown in dotted lines in a bottom position in which it would act to tighten the screw caps on an extremely large tube. ln each case, a different sized tube holder is used which brings the top' of the tube to the Same point in each case where it may be worked on by the clamping mechanisms.

in each case the tube holder is dimensioned to hold the empty tube resiliently. As shown in Figure 3 the plate 34 is movable outward and the spring 33 is relatively light so that the pressure exerted on plate 34 is not a collapsing pressure. The pressure should be enough to keep the tube from turning after it is manually inserted by an operator.

These tubes usually have printed panels on the front and back sides, and it is desirable that the closing action on the bottom of the tube be done when the panels are positioned properly to appear centered with respect to the completed tube.

The tubes are loaded in the continuous conveyor cap down into the tube holders, and the shoulder on the tube holder positions the cap directly adjacent the side slot 30.

The tube then is lled by the illing rod or nozzle 12 and passes through the stations 24, Where suitable mechanism is provided to collapse the open end of the tube and seal it. After this has been accomplished, the tube has assumed an elliptical shape adjacent the flattened ends, and this shape iills the contour of the widened portion of the holder to prevent the tube from turning in the holder.

With the cap-tightening mechanism properly positioned vertically with respect to the slot 30 of the particular holder being used, the tube then passes the tightener and the cap is tightened on the threaded neck. The tube then reaches an ejection station and is suitably packaged for shipment.

We claim; v

l. A cap tightener apparatus for collapsible tubes which are filled at an open end opposite the cap and sealed at that end after the walls are closed to a diametricaljunction, said apparatus comprising a tube holder having an opening to receive the capped end of a tube, a shoulder at the lower end of said opening to support the tube, said holder having also an opening formed below said shoulder to receive a cap on a threaded neck of said tube joining with a side opening formed in said tube holder positioned to expose a side of a cap on a tube within said holder, the tube receiving opening of said holder having an out-of-round shape which is occupied by the tube subsequent to the time Vthat the open end is closed, means for passing said tube from one station to another, and stationary means positioned to contact and rub against a cap on a tube in said holder through the opening in the side Wall of the holder to tighten the cap as the tube holder progresses in the apparatus and moves past said stationary means.

2. A cap tightener apparatus `for collapsible tubes which comprises a plurality of tube holders, means for conveying these tube holders in a defined path, said tube 'olders being formed with an opening to receive an inverted tube with cap applied, and with a connecting opening formed in the side Wall of the tube holder, and stationary means positioned adjacent the path of the holders to contact and rub against a screw cap and tighten the screw cap of a tube Within said holder through said opening in the side Wall of the tube holder.

3. A cap tightener apparatus as deiined in claim 2 in which the Walls of the tube holder adjacent the open end of the tube are shaped in a varying contour to correspond to an oval cross section of a tube which has been filled and sealed.

4. A cap tightener apparatus for collapsible tubes which are illed at an open end opposite the cap and sealed at that end after the Walls are closed to a diametrical junction, said apparatus comprising a plurality of cup-shaped tube holders, means for holding and conveying these holders to a plurality of stations, said holders being shaped to receive capped ends of tubes to be filled, and being shaped out-of-round in cross section to receive the widened ends of collapsed tubes, and stationary means to contact, rub against, and tighten the caps of said tubes as the f 4 closed tubes are held in the holders and moved past the stationary means.

5. A cap tightener apparatus for collapsible tubes as defined in claim 4 in which the cap tightener comprises resiliently biased frictional material positioned in the path of one side of a cap on a tube in the holder to engage said cap and turn it as it moves by.

6. A device as dened in claim '5 in which said conveying means is adapted to hold a plurality of varying sized tube holders, said device having means for mounting said cap contacting means in a plurality of positions to contact tube caps at diierent levels.

7. A collapsible tube holder for` use in iilling and 'cap tightening operations comprising an upright receptacle to receive a round tube in inverted capped condition, means yieldably tohold said tube against rotation in said receptable While it is being filled, and means positively to hold said tube against turning in said receptable 'subsequent to closing the tube and changing the shape from round to out-of-round.

8. In combination a tube holder and tube cap tightener comprising a plurality of receptacles to receive inverted capped tubes, a cut-away wall on said receptacle providing an opening radially of a cap on a tube in said receptacle, means to move said receptacles in a defined path, and means to contact and tighten a cap on a tube in said receptacles comprising a bar mount block, a friction plate Vslidably positioned in said block, resilient means backing said plate in said block, and means mounting said block for positionment adjacent the path of said receptacles whereby said plate will be contacted by and will frictionally engage caps on tubes in passing receptacles.

9. A combination as defined in claim 8 in which the receptacle is shaped to receive and hold an unfilled tube in round condition, and also positively to hold against rotation a filled tube in out-of-round condition at the end opposite the cap. Y

10. The method of loading collapsible screw cap tubes which comprises conveying capped, open-ended tubes in a predetermined path in inverted position, filling the open ends of said tubes and collapsing said ends to close the same and change the shape of said tubes from round to oval adjacent the collapsed end, utilizing the out-of-round shape of said tube to hold it against rotation, and passing said tubes past a friction member to engage and turn said caps to tighten the same after the tube has been filled.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,033,358 Risser Mar. 10, 1936 2,104,485 Johnson Ian. 4, 1938 2,127,974 Johnson Aug. 23, 1938 2,162,464 Soderberg June 13, 1939 2,166,382 Temple July 18, 1939 2,310,413 Friden Feb. 9, 1943 2,596,408 Johnson et al. May 13, 1952 

